Dear 21 year old me,

Hi, yep this is me - 16 year old you sitting here on a cold Thursday evening, deciding what to write as the blog post for the following day. Lucky you, I've dedicated one for you to read these many years later!

Your probably going to have forgotten I wrote this or why I'm doing it - simply because I'm interested to know whats happened over our years and I don't know, maybe you'll laugh at my assumptions for the next few years for us and prove me wrong - who knows! I'm writing this post to you to ask you a few simple questions on everything and what I'm hoping we have achieved in the next in the next 4 years.. 2019 (woah.)

Firstly, I'm hoping that you have a secure job and its something that you enjoy. As I'm writing this, I throughly live by that people should do what they enjoy and that includes me. I hope its something I'm fairly good at and something that we enjoy! If not, try and look for something new and more our area please ;)

Secondly, it would be nice to know if we've settled down with someone and that you're happy with them. But if you're still single, it doesn't matter - I'm sure you've had some fun adventures whilst being single so its not a huge loss at all!

Next, I'm hoping that the next two years of my current life at college has been completed successfully by us. I'm hoping that we achieved the whole distinction filled grades that I've hoped from from the start of doing an 18 unit media diploma course, but being a quarter of a year through it, I won't be too shocked at us if we don't get the desired grades that we wanted at the start ;) After this, I'm hoping that we decided to go to university and do something we enjoy. Again, if we didn't its not a huge worry of mine!

I hope we've taken every opportunity that gets thrown to us. I'm hoping we stick to the term of saying yes to everything that gets thrown our way! In link with this - I'm hoping that we've decided to go on more travelling adventures such as Canada and Ghana - it would be nice to have some more travelling experience under my belt. If you;ve done Australia by then - I will be impressed;)

But thats about it for everything I'm eager to know the answers to these questions that I have. As well - I hope you're well too (obviously!)

With love, 16 year old Grace x x

Hi everyone!

This post was a little bit different to the other Talking To Myself posts. I thought it would be a nice idea to include on the blog and something that I can look back on in a few years time. It was actually quite fun to write I do suggest that you guys try it out too!

See you in the next blog post,

Hi everyone!

First, sorry for the lack of blog post on Friday - you’ll be able to tell why after reading this blog post! It’s going to be a long-un’ so if you’re into listening jabber on then sit back and get comfy and read on! Also, I’d like to point out it took me about 5 attempts to write this as Weebly kept crashing, then my internet wouldn't work so the drafts were lost into the internets web… Cry. So it has resulted in my writing this on Pages (blog-ception)

Firstly on this agenda is me currently being ill. I caught this cough off someone around college (theres always something going around) and I noticed it when coming back on the train on Wednesday and it was one of those moments when you go “oh brilliant I can tell I’m getting sick.” So when I got back from college, I started getting a migraine which lasted until Friday - eugh. It felt like it was going to be a normal cough and cold and I’d get over it, but Thursday morning, my throat started throbbing and I thought “oh brilliant, tonsillitis.” I havent had it for a few years now, and the fact that it felt like I was getting my old enemy back again after all those years just put me in a really groggy mood throughout the week. So most nights I was coming home and going straight into bed to watch Netflix and then going to sleep. Hence why I didn't have any beauty post for Friday because A) I hadn’t planned anything or B) I looked awful and couldn't trial or show anything what I wanted to do! But now, its going through the cold stage - coughing and spluttering and lots of tissues (ew.) Hopefully this week I’ll be back to my normal self and have a lot more energy to do stuff!

Next, I have some happy news. If you can remember back that far, I wrote my new years resolutions for 2015 on a blog post in the first week of 2015. One of them was along the lines of “getting fitter” in which I wanted to lose a bit of weight (especially my Christmas weight…jheez!) So I started being a little more active, such as doing a bit more swimming, running (not a lot because I really don’t enjoy it!) and Zumba on the Wii - yes something embarrassing, but it really has helped. Along with this, I started watching what I ate and swapping my meals for healthy alternatives. This also meant that I was sticking to my three meals a day and avoiding to snack in between meals. The first few days were difficult I must admit - I started eating Alpen cereal in the mornings and the first two days were horrible and I was trying my best not to gag and the horrible texture. But now, I can’t go my mornings without it! Although I have been trying my best to do all this, I’ve been out for the past two weeks: firstly I pulled my left shoulder and couldn't move it very much and then I got sick! Hopefully this week I will get back into the swing of things. But even if I have been out - I have finally reached my goal weight: I went from 73kg at the start of the year and I now weigh a happy and healthy roughly 68kg. It may not sound light, but because I’m fairly tall, the weight does add up! Im extremely happy with how well I’ve done and Im going to go back to a normal diet now, but not go overboard with all the sugary snacks!

General update: college life is going well at the moment! I’,m up to date with all my work currently - I’m trying to do it as soon as I get it so I dont have anything to worry about during the weekend. I think the coursework load is going to get a lot bigger since A level final exams are coming up, and since I wont be taking part in any exams (woohoo!) they’re going to make us work just as hard - which I’m not too fussed about.

Anyways besides from that, thats about everything that I’d like to share with you! Again apologies for the lack of post last week, I promise to try and get something up this Friday for you all! This week I will try and trial some new blog posts for you guys to receive more content from this site. Thank you all for reading and as always,


See you in the next blog post,

Hi everyone!

Finally, another TTM (talking to myself) post! This time I decided to focus on how I try to stay positive even worse case scenarios! This post has been fuelled by the past few months when things have got tough and I've been kicking myself about some things - so I thought this would a lovely post for you all to read especially is you're having a rubbish time at the moment! 

Even at your worst times, just look on the brighter side of it. In most situations, there will always be a silver lining to the issue (trust me!) When in bad situations, I try to focus on the things around me instead of the issue. For example: I had the worst day the other week (that will be a future post most likely) and whilst I was in a grumpy mood and freezing cold in the rain and wind, I just tried to think of the positive that I can just go straight to bed when I finally got home! I know thats a small problem, but trust me there will always be a small positive from the situation!

I'm the worst at this, I always think that the world is going to end if something doesn't go right with my day or something goes wrong. But, I always try to take a step back from the situation and ask myself: is this small problem something to get annoyed about? There are much worse problems in the world and do I really feel like this is one of them? (These are known as FWP's: First World Problems.) If you realise that it isn't that much to worry about, I bet it will go away from your mind quickly! Another thing I like to think about is that if you go asleep feeling annoyed about the situation but the next day it does't bother you, then there's no reason to get upset about something small which doesn't affect your next day! 

Whatever the situation, start the day with a smile. You will feel a tiny bit better about the issue! Also, if you show everyone else that it isn't getting you down too much, they will also feel better about their day too! I feel a whole lot better when I smile as I know that I'm still happy about everything even the problem at hand! The following day will be much better than the last, just remember baby steps!

If you're ever in doubt, listen to this song's lyrics and I promise it will change your view on everything;)

And there we go! I hope you take in some of my advice and use this as a reference to look at if you're having one of your off days! Let me know in the comments what you like to do to try and stay positive throughout the bad times!

See you in the next blog post,

Hi everyone!

Its the final post of my London adventures over the winter holidays! This one was the most terrifying of all for me but now that I look back I'm so glad that I done it! So another Christmas present for my dad (from me this time) was to go on the cable cars in London at the O2.

I thought it would be a great idea - see some sites, experience London from above and all that. So we arrived before our 2pm slot and we were greeted by this:

up right in front of the cable cars. So I took this photo whilst queuing and I think you should be able to tell who was excited about this little trip:

It wasn't an amazing trip to do in all honesty, firstly, its £10 per ticket for a 20 minute round trip and there wasn't many views to look at, at all really: the O2 arena, the Thames and lots of lovely construction sites...

So yes it was a good experience, especially if its good weather & you don't mind heights! After being on the cars we also got to go to the museum next door, where you learn to be a pilot and you get to sit in a plane simulator thing - wasn't the most exciting thing but it was the experience that matters;)

See you in the next BEAUTY post (I promise!),

Hi everyone!

I'm so sorry this post is up so late & the fact that it isn't a beauty post - it's been such a busy first week back and it has completely slipped my mind to edit this whole post! I've had 0 time to plan a beauty post for you all which has annoyed me a lot - but I didn't want to let you guys down with no post to show! So I thought I would continue on with my London trips over the winter break and share the experience with you all.

So for Christmas, my mum had been going on about booking the olympic velodrome tickets for my sport mad dad (since he loves cycling) and there was also one for swimming in the London olympic pool. I thought nothing of it and told my mum to just book that for him as well. On Christmas day he received the tickets and it said one child on there too - so it looked like I was swimming too..

Now a little fact about me, I couldn't swim until I was around 9/10 - I was petrified of water. I couldn't swim, HATED the deep end and basically anything to do with swimming and pools. But thankfully, I got taught lessons and finally got the confidence to swim & I hadn't felt that anxiety of water since then...but upon arrival to the pool - it was a completely different story!

The pool was 50m long - I can barely swim 25m let alone 50! And it was 3 metres deep.. Thats what scared me the most! I wouldn't be able to get out if I ran out of breath and what if everyones faster than me and I'd have to speed up? Those were the thoughts running through my head before taking a dip. I was so close to not doing it but I stood there and looked at the pool and thought "its the olympic pool, for goodness sake I'll probably only do this once in my life!" So I overcame my fears and just went in! 

It was tiring doing one length, but the buzz of the place was so great you didn't feel pressured to do well or anything! They have different set lanes for different abilities which was such a relief for me  (I went in the slow lane nearest to the walls;)) It was so amazing and I would definitely recommend it to those who enjoy swimming - its an experience that I will never forget! So I shall leave you some photos of that day and as always I'll see you in the next blog post,